Monday, March 26, 2007

Intel Enter China With New Fab


Sunday, March 25, 2007

Gateway May Be Acer Target


Shares of the third largest computer manufacturer in the U.S., Gateway Inc. (GTW) shot up as much as 8.4% and closed up 6.7% on speculation it may be an acquisition target. Analyst believe Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer Inc. was hoping to make an acquisition in the PC area within the next two years, and that would be Gateway. Analysts said Gateway is a likely candidate for a possible strategic buyout.

Such a transaction would put a company like Acer, with a faint presence in the U.S., in third place in the domestic PC race behind Hewlett Packard (HPQ). However till date both companies have declined to comment on this speculation. Lenovo, the Chinese computer manufacturer that bought IBM's PC business for $1.75 billion in 2005, was also thrown into the mix.

In September, Gateway rejected a $450 million offer for its retail business. Last month it said it would lay off more workers and cut $20-25 million in expenses. Gateway had already cut nearly 100 jobs, or about 5% of its work force, in the third quarter of last year.

Stocks: Gateway Inc. (GTW).

Competitors: Dell Inc. (DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Lenovo Group Ltd. (LNVGY), International Business Machines Corp. (IBM).

ETFs: SPDR Technology (XLK), iShares Goldman Sachs Technology Index Fund (IGM), iShares Dow Jones US Technology Index (IYW)

(Source: SeekingAlpha)

Palm: Is It a Likely Buyout

There were rumors that a Palm Inc. buyout was expected to be finished at a price of $20 or more per share when Palm released the results of its most recent financial quarter. Nokia Corp. is the leading vendor bidder, but Palm management is said to favor a private equity buyer, either Texas Pacific Group or Silver Lake Partners. Motorola Inc., has been reconsidering its position, and may try to block Nokia with its own bid in an effort to get out of its low-price war with Nokia and concentrate on Palm's higher-end Treo 680, and in order to placate activist shareholder Carl Icahn. Palm hired Morgan Stanley to explore its options to close the deal.


However in a twist of events, despite widespread rumors, no bids appear to be forthcoming for Palm. Meanwhile the PDA/smartphone maker, which has been the subject of persistent takeover rumors, reported results that beat Wall Street expectations. Palm executives were asked several times about the rumors, but they declined to comment. Just because there wasn't an official announcement of a company acquiring Palm today doesn't mean that it isn't going to happen.

The lack of an announcement today could simply be an indication that the bidding process is taking longer than some had hoped. At the same time, it could also mean that there is no truth to these rumors at all.

The price of Palm's stock, after steadily rising on speculation of a buy-out, dropped 8.8% percent recently, after Motorola's quarterly financial announcement was released yesterday without word of it acquiring Palm.

Stocks: Palm Inc. (PALM), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Motorola Inc. (MOT).

Competitors: Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL).

ETFs: streetTRACKS Morgan Stanley Technology Index Fund (MTK), HOLDRS Wireless (WMH), HOLDRS Broadband (BDH)

(Source: SeekingAlpha)